1. Field of the Invention
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/114,550, filed on Apr. 26, 2005, by Yen-Fu Chen. This invention relates to automatic tuning of broadcast signal receivers.
2. Background of the Invention
Since the creation of the first broadcast television receiver (“TV”), many improvements and features have been made which enhance the entertainment value of TV use. These improvements have included addition of color to the image, higher resolution of the images, flattening of the screen, changes in technology for the display (e.g. from cathode ray tube to plasma and projection), and stereo and surround sound. Logical functions have been greatly improved and enhanced as well, such as addition of wireless remote controllers, clock and timer functions, automatic channel memory configuration, picture-in-picture display, etc. The TV has become a display for a number of other electronic systems, such as video tape players, digital versatile disk (“DVD”) players, satellite and cable programming decoders and receivers, video games, and even personal computers.
Today, a TV user can view or watch (including audio) a selection of programming sources often ranging from 8 to 12 “local” “over the air” broadcast channels in most areas, to hundreds of satellite and cable broadcast channels, as well as several local device playback (e.g. DVD, VCR, etc.) devices, all at their fingertips. The variety of shows and programs which are now available 24 hours a day 7 days a week is overwhelming to comprehend for many users, so many systems of menus and program guides have been developed to help a user sort through all of the options, including organizing channels by content type or theme (e.g. news, sports, history, fashion, music, home and garden, etc.), and providing channel guide filters and locks based on audience ratings for programs (e.g. family, teen, adult, etc.). A user can even watch multiple channels at once using the picture-in-picture (“PIP”) feature available on many TV sets, and can record parts of or entire programs while watching or not using a personal video recorder (“PVR”), such as a TiVo™ device.
All of these options, however, have led to new user habits and frustration. “Channel surfing” is a habit of changing channels rapidly over time in an effort to avoid commercials, watch multiple programs or keep track of multiple live events (e.g. tracking scores in 2 or more simultaneous sports events), or avoid boredom. For example, consider a hypothetical, but very realistic situation where a user, “Mike”, is watching an Oakland Raiders National Football League (“NFL”)™ football game. During a commercial break or during the half-time pause, Mike channel surfs. Mike continuously has to manually check back to see if the Raiders game is back on. There is no product or feature available to Mike, either part of the TV set or the cable/satellite receiver, which can automatically notify Mike when the commercial or half-time break is finished. In fact, the most common feature which can assist Mike is the “channel return” key available on most remote controls for TVs or receivers, which essentially tunes the receiver back to the last channel Mike was watching. Some remote controls, however, update this “last channel memory” value even when Mike uses the channel up or channel down keys on the remote control, so pressing the channel return key would not actually return him to viewing the source of the football game after surfing to several other channels. Additionally, Mike must manually decide when to operate the channel return key, which often results in frustration and a portion of missed programming (e.g. the game starts again but Mike doesn't check back until several seconds or minutes later).
Although PIP can be of use or assistance in such a situation, PIP can obscure the channel currently being watched. Additionally, there is a time gap or delay between when Mike sees his primary program is back on and when he can press the right buttons on his remote to return and disable PIP. Furthermore, if Mike doesn't want to return when back from commercial, but rather when some known segment appears (such as sports highlights in local news), then the limitations of PIP are multiplied.